Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.11UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.09UNLIKELY
Fear
0.1UNLIKELY
Joy
0.63LIKELY
Sadness
0.55LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.65LIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.55LIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.88LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.61LIKELY
Extraversion
0.17UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.79LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
Everyone loves the “last-minute save” when it comes to stories or movies.
It’s the hero or heroine you thought lay dead under a pile of rubble that suddenly “resurrects” and saves the day.
The battle raging on and the good guys are losing hoping for reinforcements and just as the battle is about to be lost, the cavalry appears.
Even in the Bible we see stories like this—true stories like the disciples rowing in a boat all night in the midst of the storm and just when all seems lost, Jesus comes walking on water.
We love that kind of stuff!
Last minute saves are nerve-racking and energizing all at the same time.
And this morning we see a last minute save in our text.
But I want us to notice that within this text you have a man who displays goodness toward others.
We see this good focused in two different ways.
But he also displays marvelous faith.
So we see three displays of good.
The first good is a compassion toward his slave.
The second is a love toward the nation.
And then he displays a faith toward Jesus.
Compassion Toward His Slave
Love Toward The Nation
Faith Toward Jesus
Compassion Toward His Slave
Love Toward the Nation
Faith Toward Jesus
Compassion Toward His Slave
The first display good comes in a display of compassion directed toward the slave of a centurion.
Jesus had finished his teaching, left the steppe that he had been preaching from, and entered into the city of Capernaum.
And as he is just minding his own business, some elders of the Jews come to talk to Jesus.
Now, don’t confuse the elders with Pharisees or Scribes.
Elders were leaders within the Jewish community.
They were men of influence.
They were generally part of the synagogal government, making decisions about the synagogue, its use, and its speakers.
In other words, they were men highly respected, but not necessarily teachers, scribes, Pharisees, or Sadducees.
I think it is important to remember that this is taking place in Capernaum.
Remember what Jesus said to those in the synagogue of Nazareth.
Jesus has already performed many miracles in Capernaum.
And here, Luke wants us to know he is back and is about to perform a huge miracle.
The elders of the Nazarene synagogue had rejected Jesus.
These elders in Capernaum are coming to him.
And Luke tells us that they are coming to Jesus because there is this slave of a centurion who is on his death bed.
But it isn’t just any slave.
This is a highly valued slave.
That may not seem like much at first, but it really is.
This isn’t just a utilitarian word.
It’s not just that the slave was useful and therefore, his value was in what he did.
This is much more of an internal value.
This is not a common word in the New Testament, but it is used elsewhere.
Let me give you a couple of places.
That word precious is the same word as highly valued.
Another place is in Luke itself.
Jesus warned not to sit in the place of honor lest someone more distinguished, valuable, precious to the host is invited.
This isn’t about usefulness, but about how one sees and loves the other.
They are precious, distinguished, honored, valued by a person.
That’s what this slave was to his master.
That sounds weird doesn’t it?
That a slave would be precious to his master, that he would be honored by his master!? That’s weird.
We don’t usually hear that to be the case.
Jesus who has just been speaking on doing good is now confronted by a man with that kind of goodness.
The kind of goodness that honors his own slave.
This is a slave that can offer no good gift back to his master.
At best, he can work hard for him.
But he would never earn enough to give his master a gift or to throw a party on his behalf.
Yet, the master honors him, values him.
To be a slave was to be on the lowest of the class system.
To be a Roman centurion wasn’t the highest, but it was high.
As we’ll see in a moment, he had enough money to help build the community’s synagogue.
So here is this Roman showing love and compassion to someone who was considered beneath him.
I had a friend growing up who was poor—very poor.
He and his sister were from a broken family and they lived with their grandmother who had some health problems.
He would come to my house and I’d go to his.
I never thought much about it.
I knew he was poorer than us, but he was my friend.
When I was 12 or so, he moved to New Hampshire and I never saw him again.
About ten years or so ago, he found me on Facebook.
He asked if I remembered him and then asked how my parents were doing.
He was sad to hear about my dad passing, but he asked me to tell my mom thanks.
He thought of my parents as his own.
They loved him and accepted him in spite of his poverty.
They treated him as their own.
I tend to think that is what this centurion had done with this servant.
Let me ask you: is there someone in your life that you can show this kind of love to?
Is there someone who can do you no good, but to whom you can do good to?
Not as a project but as a person?
Love Toward the Nation
But it wasn’t just that the centurion was good to his slave who could do nothing for him.
He also displayed love toward the people of Israel.
As a centurion—a Roman official and soldier—this guy could have commanded the elders to go and they’d have to go.
But when they got there is was clear that they were not commanded, but came willingly.
Notice that the elders of the Jews plead earnestly for the centurion.
It wasn’t only clear that this centurion was compassionate to his servant but a man who loved the community.
There was no pretence, only earnestness.
And they saw him as worthy.
Think about that!
This Roman occupier was considered worthy of Jesus’s miraculous power by the Jewish leadership!
How good of a reputation must a guy acquire so that those who are haters of your people actually respect you and consider you worthy of this miracle?
Back when I was a kid, I would watch a cartoon called The Flintstones.
It was watching this cartoon that I first heard of a man called Dr. Livingstone.
Dr. David Livingstone was actually a real person.
He was a missionary and an explorer.
But he was determined to find the source of the Nile.
It was his hope that if he could do so, it would make him famous enough to end the African slave trade.
His explorations took him deep into the heart of Africa which no white person typically was willing to do for fear of being killed.
He never found the source of the Nile, but he worked constantly to evangelize and end the slave trade.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9